DESIGN REFLECTIONS 

PROJECT CONTRIBUTIONS

Every team member contributed in all areas, but throughout the project each member had their unique specialized roles. Towards the beginning, my main role was completing calculations for a composting recipe and figuring out how much on-site storage was necessary. For these calculations, I came up with a 4:5:1 volume based mixture ratio of pre-consumer food waste to chicken litter to sawdust. I also sized various size storage bins for the necessary on-site storage of compost ingredients, curing of compost, and finished compost located in a three sided pole barn on-site. The calculations for all of these can be found here. Later on during the designing process, I became more of the AutoCad specialist of the group. I contributed a lot to the design drawings. I did some work and editing on all drawings, but I personally did the most work on the drawings of the proposed site plan, proposed site grading, erosion and sedimentation control, pole barn floor plan, side view of pole barn, and details that went along with the drawings. All of my drawings that I spent the most amount of time on can be found here. Part of the grading drawing also included some hydrology calculations that can be found here. Overall, the team worked well together as I focused more on the technical aspect (drawings and calculations), Rosia focused more on the formal aspect (written reports), and Austin focused more on the cost of the design. All of my work can be backed by my drawings, calculations, and sources that are all found inside my design journal. Everything that I designed served a purpose, and throughout the project the design team talked about how we wanted to design the composting facility.

LESSONS LEARNED

Before this senior design project, I had very little knowledge about composting. Now, I feel equipped to come up with composting recipes and to be able to explain the process. Composting became a topic that I feel as if have a certain level of expertise in for a new college graduate. Another large aspect of the project was to design the site that the composting facility was being placed on. Before the project, I was able to learn about site designing in my site design class from the previous semester. The class was a good basis to start with, but during the project I gained even more knowledge and skills about site designing. This really helped me learn more of the ins and outs of AutoCad and Civil 3D. There was more skills and lessons gained during this project besides engineering skills though. This project taught me the difficulties and benefits of working with one small team over an extended period of time. I became more comfortable in voicing my opinion, communicating, and organizing inside a small team setting. The other two aspects I gained knowledge and experience in was making cost effective engineering designs and meeting deadlines on time. All of these lessons learned should become useful in the future.

MOVING FORWARD

Senior design made me personally feel a lot more comfortable about starting my career in the field of engineering. I do not know if I will necessarily ever do anything with composting again, but the site design aspect of my senior design project will help me directly with my job I am starting this summer. The job will require me to do a lot of site design work using AutoCad and Civil 3D. The experience I gained completing these task during my project will be beneficial in helping me come up to speed as I start my job. Other lessons learned will also be very beneficial as I start my careers because engineers are always working in teams, having to worry about being cost effective, and meeting deadlines on time. One major component of senior design I was not expecting was the constant adjustments being made to my team's design. Now, this idea is not foreign to me because I know adjustments can always be made to improve the design. Going forward in my career, I will approach problems with the assumption that there will always be adjustments made throughout the design process to find solutions because there is always room for improvement. The completion of senior design has definitely made me prepared for the future and my upcoming career.